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'We don't have a strategy yet'

“I think the elements of a strategy are there,” the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee member said. “Look, the president’s made clear and, I think, appropriate we’re talking about airstrikes at some point,” as well as special operators, aid, training and consolidating allies in the Middle East.

The president has received backlash for comments he made Thursday about ISIL, the group that has swept across much of eastern Syria and northern and central Iraq. The Obama administration, which launched airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq, has said it is considering airstrikes against the group in Syria. On Thursday, the president said: “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet,” remarks that drew criticism from Republicans and conservative media outlets who have long accused Obama of being weak on foreign policy and disengaged from the world.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest and Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby have since clarified that the president was speaking specifically about military action against ISIL targets in Syria, and that the White House has long had a comprehensive strategy against the group in Iraq.

On Friday, Cole said the president is taking an appropriate approach to a tricky problem in Syria, where ISIL forces have been fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, who, the U.S. has said, used chemical weapons against his own people.

“I think the president is being commendably cautious here about being involved in the middle of the Syrian civil war,” he said, adding that he doesn’t necessarily think the U.S. has a “responsibility” in Syria beyond targeting ISIL.

Cole, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, said Obama must come to Congress for any significant military action in Syria. “Congress has to be absolutely central,” he said.